57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XXVI

Quote of the Week: It’s a pretty nice chair. It used to belong to a pimp friend of mine Snookie. He got rid of it because he thought people didn’t respect the chair. Now he has one of his (expletive deleted) carry him around in a backpack Yoda style. (Patty, My Name Is Earl)

Song of the Week: Sandcastles in the Sand - Robin Sparkles (How I Met Your Mother)

Big News of the Week: Scooter Is Back: Sort of. After a three week hiatus where I had nearly zero free time, I wrote my first post last week and I should slowly get back into my groove within the next couple weeks. Since I may be still a little spoatic until them I highly recommend using that orange button on the top of the sidebar to subscribe so your feed reader can tell you when I do update. Also many thanks to Jo and Vance for sending along some guest posts.

Coalition Links of the Week:
Buzz played agent to Lauren Graham and asked what her next career move should be. (BuzzSugar)

Sandie shared pictures from the set of Moonlight. (Daemon's TV)

Marcia liveblogged the UK's BAFTA Television Awards, in which shows most Americans have never heard of took home the big prizes. (Pop Vultures)

Rae listened in on a teleconference with Jason Dohring about the return of Moonlight and shares her favorite bits. (RTVW)

This week, the TV Addict set the internet ablaze with his review of the highly anticipated Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica. (the TV Addict)

How I Met Your Mother introduces everyone to Vance's Canada! Welcome, eh! (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace dished about the Torchwood season finale but he was really all about the shape of things to come on Lost. (Televisionary)

TiFaux launched a new regular feature this week with Dan recruiting some of his gal pals for Ask a Lesbian About This Week's Work Out. This week, they addressed Jackie's new haircut and Rebecca's shouting for attention. (TiFaux)

Jennifer was downright giddy after Robin and Barney's kiss on How I Met Your Mother and couldn't resist gushing about the Robin Sparkles-centered episode guest starring James Van Der Beek. And she can't stop singing, "I'm building sandcastles in the sand." (Tube Talk)

Kate scoured casting notices until she was able to confirm that yes, there really will be a Wedding of the Year on Gossip Girl. (TV Filter)


The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon quickly became one of my favorite characters on television and I may have realized why this week, dude is basically me. If you remember last summer I mentioned how I could win VH1’s World Series of Pop Culture by myself, and Sheldon actually tried win a team competition all by himself this week. I loved how the janitor was actually a physicist back in Russia. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.


How I Met Your Mother: I’m not sure if I can watch this show anymore after seeing Marshall in all his doughy glory. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.


My Name Is Earl: I’m not sure what I liked less since Earl came back from hiatus: the coma storyline or Earl’s coma sitcom. It did get better this week with the introduction of Jason Street’s buddy Herc and luckily Earl finally woke up because Randy as the lead just wasn’t cutting it, he should only be seen in small doses. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.


Survivor: Why do these morons hold onto the Hidden Immunity Idol so long? If I am not mistaken that is four Idols that have gone unused over the last two seasons when the owner’s torch got snuffed out. And with the girls’ alliance, why didn’t the guys get together, recruit Amanda who is last in their pecking order, and force a tie instead of resigning to being picked off one by one? Last week was the opportune time to do so, now they are just waiting around to get voted off. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.




Lost: I haven’t decided if I loved the ending or hated it. On one hand, Not-Henry is back to his un-castrated self playing mind games. On the other hand, if the rules have changed, why not cap Whitmore right there. And how hard is it for Not-Henry to find Penny, she has been waiting in the same apartment for a decade waiting for Desmond’s call. As for the rules changing, the easy explanation of what Not-Henry was doing in the Bat Cave was summoning the Smoke Monster, but what if this week’s flashbacks / forwards, were actually neither, and Not-Henry was actually went through that black wall and was transported to Tunisia, went through the whole thing with Sayid (do you really believe his Fiji explanation), found Whitmore, threatened him, and went back to the island. Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com.




Next Week’s Pick: Lost, Thursday at 10:01 on ABC: Leave it a Not-Henry-centric episode to make it look like the show is back on track and maybe the episodes the show lost due to the writer’s strike will speed things up for the rest of the season. Next week looks like a Jack episode but will we be getting flashback’s or flashforward. Of course if we get any more flashbacks from the Oceanic Six will be a huge disappointment, so hopefully it is a flashforward.

I Want My Music Television vol. XXIV

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


>The Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne



If revoking NAFTA means an end to Avril Lavigne’s pink and punk era comes to an end here in America I am all for it. It was moderately cute circa Girlfriend, but she has gone way over the line of tolerability with this video.


I’m Your - Jason Mraz



Jason Mraz is one of those artist that makes some crappy music, yet every once in a while can create a completely great track. I’m Yours is one of the latter in that is just a quintessential springtime song. And if you have time you really want to hunt down the mash-up How Six Songs Collide that landed at number 14 of the Best Mash Up’s of 2007 list.


Strange Times - The Black Keys



If I am not mistaken I think I was an orientation instructor back in college for one half of The Black Keys (and while I am name dropping I routinely hit on a future Playmate of the Month while working at the Recreation Center in college too). Despite the connection, I have never checked out any of the group’s album even though I have been meaning to for years now. Hopefully the great laser tag themed video (hey, we need a way to fulfill our paintball urges when there is too much snow on the ground) will finally get me around to that.


Mercy - Duffy



For those of you that like the retro stylings of Amy Winehouse but could do without the course language and tabloid antics, give a listen to Duffy (not to be confused with the MTV VJ of the nineties) who does the retro vibe much closer to the sixties girl groups.

Would You Like to Pick Out the Outfit You Want to Break Up with Me In

It seems the only way a comedy can become a hit these days is to have the name Judd Apatow. The guy who perfected the lovable loser in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. And the guy is building up a family tree that rivals that of Bill Walsh has in the NFL. And to help them out, Apatow slaps on the “produced by” tag for himself so their movie gets an extra boost, the latest is from Jason Segal, who worked for Apatow in Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Knocked Up and has now written Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Segal doesn’t steer to far from Apatow territory with the lead, which he cast himself as, is yet another lovable loser who has taken to eating Fruit Loops out of an oversized bowl while watching Project Runway in sweatpants. And that is what is happening when he is dating television star Sarah Marshall, for who he does the music for (the movie is almost worth the price of admission for her television partner and be sure to stay for the credits for her second special co-star) so things only gets worse when she dumps him for known player Aldous Snow, lead singer for Infant Sorrow.

Also an Apatow trait is the numerous cameos and their plenty of them here including hilarious turns from Apatow regulars Paul Rudd (Knocked Up), Jonah Hill (The 40 Year Old Virgin), and Bill Hader (Superbad) as well as new comer into the fold Jack McBray (Mariah Carey Touch My Body video) who gets some of the best lines in the movie. They even brought in some native Hawaiians for some memorable characters.

It is nice to see Kristen Bell in something good not named Veronica Mars (there is a not so subtle dig at Bell’s Pulse in the movie) the only problem, despite being the title character; hers is the most poorly written in the film. In fact writing for woman is apparently not Segal’s strong suit because Mila Kunis (American Psycho II: All American Girl) as the potential rebound girl isn’t much better. But with a lesser actress, Sarah could have turned into your token cold hearted ex but in Bell’s hand there are times you will find yourself rooting for her to land the good guy in the end.

Oh and did I mention there are puppets? Seriously. Go see this movie or at the very least wait for the DVD for hopefully an extended version of the puppet scene.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. XXIII

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Homecoming - Kanye West



I believe Kanye West is now half way to making a video for each song off his new album. I always found it silly to have the dude from Coldplay sing the hook about Chicago. I don’t think he remembers fireworks on Lake Michigan. The effect are pretty cool anyways.


I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie



Yeah some die-hards are upset with this song but I have to give it up to anyone with the gall to go with an eight plus minute epic as their first single without any lyrics until half way through. Now if only Death Cab for Cutie had taken a page out of the Guns n’ Roses playbook and had an accompanying super epic video to go along with it. But the infectious bass line almost makes up for it.


Bottle it Up - Sara Bareilles



What I like about Sara Bareilles, and why I think she will outlast other potential one hit wonder of the moment Colbie Caillat, is that she has an underlying starkiness. If you thought Love Song was about some dude, take a closer listen to the lyrics (hint: its dircted at her record company). And I love the opening line of this song, “They’ll be girls across the nation that will eat this up.”


Madly - Tristan Prettyman



I should have a review of Tristan Prettyman’s album up sometime this week, but in short it is better than her debut, of course I think only a small handful ever heard it. To hold you over until I get that up, you can currently download this song for free as iTunes Free Single of the Week (as long as the below graphic is still of her).